ACLU Report Details Violence And Abuse In LA County Jail System

LOS ANGELES – A report released by the American Civil Liberties Union shows that overcrowding and unsanitary conditions that have plagued Los Angeles County's Men's Central Jail for more than 30 years still persist, along with an apparent culture of violence and fear, including prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and the use of excessive force by deputies.

The picture of the jail that emerges in stark and disturbing detail in the report suggests that prisoners with mental illnesses suffer some of the worst treatment, and that retaliation by deputies against prisoners who complain about conditions as well as a lack of transparency in conducting investigations into prisoner complaints make it difficult to assess the full extent of violence that occurs there.

"Men's Central Jail is a modern-day medieval dungeon, a dank, windowless place where prisoners live in fear of retaliation, and abuse apparently goes unchecked," said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. "The jail is not an appropriate facility for housing prisoners with mental illness, many of whom do not receive proper treatment. At the root of the many problems plaguing this toxic facility is overcrowding, and the only solutions are to either reduce its population dramatically or close it."

With approximately 20,000 detainees, the Los Angeles County jail system is the largest and most expensive in the nation, costing nearly $1 billion a year to operate. Men's Central Jail is nearly 50 years old and currently houses an average of 5,000 detainees daily. More than half are simply awaiting trial – in other words, they are presumed innocent and have yet to get their day in court.

As a result of decades-long litigation in which the ACLU charges the conditions in the jail violate the constitutional rights of detainees, the ACLU of Southern California and the ACLU National Prison Project are the court-appointed monitors of conditions within the jail.

The new report, based on the observations of ACLU jail monitors, numerous interviews with prisoners and thousands of prisoner complaints gathered between 2008 and 2009, focuses on conditions inside Men's Central Jail, the largest jail in the county's system.

In one case, a prisoner said he was brutally beaten by deputies after complaining to an ACLU jail monitor that he and other prisoners on his jail row had not been allowed to shower for weeks. The deputies broke his leg and hurt his knee so badly that he had to have surgery. The ferocious attack had a chilling effect, silencing many of the prisoners on that row. When a jail monitor visited a few days after the beating, many refused to talk, while those who did spoke in hushed tones for fear of also being targeted.

Another significant concern is that a high percentage of prisoners are mentally ill, many of whom are unable to control their disturbed behavior. A national expert found abuse of prisoners by deputies to be disproportionately directed toward those with mental illness.

"The dangerously overcrowded conditions at Men's Central Jail exacerbate violence, filth and mental illness among the detainee population, creating a poisonous brew," said Mary Tiedeman, jails project coordinator for the ACLU of Southern California and co-author of the report. "No human being should be forced to live in such egregious conditions. But what is so troubling is that most of these prisoners are awaiting trial, still presumed innocent."

It is difficult for the ACLU to assess accurately the extent of violence inside the jails or to confirm some allegations. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department refuses to release basic information about how it conducts investigations of abuse and metes out punishment. This lack of transparency raises serious questions about the department's independence and internal review process and could even encourage violence within the facility. The ACLU is further hampered by a widespread fear of retaliation among prisoners, portrayed in numerous prisoner complaints.

"It's time for the county and the Sheriff's Department to deal with the longstanding problems, and spending more money on a newer and bigger jail is not the answer," said Margaret Winter, Associate Director of the ACLU National Prison Project. "It's time for county officials to lower the jail population by using proven diversion programs such as electronic monitoring and drug and mental health treatment. The conditions at Men's Central Jail are simply among the most barbaric of any jail or prison in the nation."